The Adventures of a Christian Mom, Grandma and cancer surviver!

Yesterday and today I’ve had some extra time to devote to working on the last Art Project; the 3D building made out of foam board. I can finally say we’re ALMOST DONE! All the walls are finished/windows made, doors on, roof made (that was a total fluke that worked really well!) – almost all done! We still need to construct the railings around the second & third floors, find/locate the ‘train grass’ somewhere in the basement, assemble the building, somehow get it anchored down to the foam board base, put in the ‘tree’, the sign for the hotel and ‘Japanese Sand Garden’. Dear Son (for whatever reason) thought it would be a really great idea to build a Japanese Sand Garden on the base; if you’re not familiar, I’ll try to explain using a photo:

They can vary greatly, but basically they are areas of ‘sculpted’ sand with some rocks. The decorating of the sand is unique to the builder – any design works. Son thought it would be a very good idea to see if we can do a small one – we’ll see. I’m thinking Elmer’s glue painted onto the surface, quickly ‘combed’ with a plastic fork, then sprinkled with real sand; add some small rocks afterwards – we’ll see how it comes out. I’m planning on a ‘practice’ board, first – just in case it doesn’t work. Sort of like the project today – since the teacher wants it to look Los Vegas style, we decided to cover the second floor in glitter (we had very fine green mixed with gold, but when we tried it, it just didn’t look right – ended up using just gold.) On the ‘Roof Goof” – I had cut out and fully lined (traced scalloped lines on roof to resemble tiles) a piece of cardboard, then painted the underside black. Son wanted the curved Japanese roof, so I thought the underside should be black, since that would show when curled. Little to my knowledge, the cardboard itself began to curl! When I gently painted the top side of the roof (with the tiles) I was able to mold the damp card board into just what we wanted – curved edges! YAY! I’m not exactly sure how ‘fine’ of a job the entire project will be when put together, but for amateurs, I think it will look just fine (she said, ‘fingers crossed’.) It’s not due to hand in for another week (April 22, last day of class). Son did almost all the foam board cutting and some design ideas, but this one is mostly me – not taking any credit, just saying: when you see it you know who to blame for any errors! It’s been a ‘crazy ride’ working this all out, but I’m happy it’s finally in it’s finishing stages.

Not much else new around here EXCEPT OUR WEATHER! Yesterday was really nice, sunny & clear and in the low 60’s BUT TODAY – we got almost to 70!!! I had some quick grocery shopping to do and was pleasantly pleased to be able to go out without a coat or jacket! I even drove with the windows down! We opened the house windows and aired the house out – that’s always SO nice to do once Spring gets here. (I must admit, I’ve heard rumors of possible SNOW next week: just looked on the weather channel for our area and it shows: Monday night Rain/Snow likely, low 26 degrees F., Tuesday chance Rain/Show High 36F, low 24! UGH! Going up in the week, it doesn’t look like we’ll get much higher than 36 degrees by next Sunday! UGH! NOT GOOD!

Have you been getting ready for Easter & Easter dinner? I’ve decided to make the Watergate Salad I featured a few posts ago – it’s easy and should be liked (maybe if I eliminate the nuts); it’s a light, fluffy Cool Whip based dessert with pineapple, pistachio pudding mix, miniature marshmallows – we’ll see how it goes. Not sure yet about dessert – might ask oldest son (the chef) to bring/make dessert.

Had grandson almost all day Friday – no school/their Spring break. Funny, used to be (in days past) it was EASTER break and took place closer to EASTER! Goofy. We’re not sure, yet, if he has school Good Friday (I get him on Fridays). He & I had fun painting – I was working on ‘the project’ and I gave him paper & paints to ‘create’. He drew then painted a picture of a house, garage, car, & sun and had fun doing it. I’m thinking about becoming the “Craft Grandma” for him. He has 5 people, altogether who watch over him: His Dad (my son), His Mom & her boyfriend, His other Grandparents, his Great Grandmother (his Mom’s side) and us. Most of the others like to keep him busy with sports or activities, Gr Grandma likes to take him to the Dollar Store – I’m the only one that doesn’t try to ‘keep him busy’ – I’d rather let him just BE A KID! He’s only 7 1/2 so I figure, for him, our house is more like ‘down time’ – Legos, building blocks, coloring/painting/mazes, reading books, etc. Now that I’m sure he likes crafts, I’m thinking of taking him to Michael’s and see what kind of kids projects we can ‘get into.’ Last year I bought him several wooden small birdhouses and we painted them together – might do that again this year, as some of mine got a little weather-worn last year sitting on the outside window sill.

I’m sorry – not exactly sure just what my server is doing, but it keeps making the recipes really HUGE/GIANT – totally illegible. Will have to submit more recipes in another post as this one just isn’t working – sigh.

If you didn’t know by now, Spring is my all-time FAVORITE time of year – I love watching for the first shoots of the crocus and hyacinth to pop out of the ground, look for the first robins, hear bird songs again – love it all! It’s a little chilly right now (37 degrees F.) but a wee bit sunny, too, which lifts my spirits.

Had a good time at last night’s Knit/Crochet & Yarn Swap night – I took a large bag filled with mostly worsted weight yarns and several knit bags (I have WAY too many of those!) and came home with new yarns; about 1/3 of the amount of yarns taken – the ones I brought home were baby or sport weight yarns and little bits & pieces, just perfect for baby hats! Most knitters don’t want little bits of yarn – they want the whole skeins to make projects like gloves, scarves, cowls, sweaters, etc. I love the little bits as they are just what I use when making the baby hats. I came away with some really bright yellow (YAY!), a really nice, rich warm cocoa brown and another really nice cream (those will make some really nice looking boy baby hats), some pretty medium pinks, some nice blues and a few skeins of sage green – I’m happy! This was our second Yarn Swap and I truly think we had a lot more yarn THIS time than the first! This idea is a ‘keeper’ – we’ll probably do it again in 3-4, or maybe 6 months (giving them enough time to accumulate more that they don’t need or want!).

With the fun of the evening we were also saddened to learn that one of our ladies (age 70) had passed away 2 days ago. One of the managers of Panera came over with a written message for me from her son; he had called to let the group know AND to say that he wanted to donate all of her knitting materials to us – how kind. When I saw the obituary in last night’s paper, it states that there will be a family time from 5-7 p.m. tonight (no service or funeral), so I’m going to go right at 5 to have enough time to also be able to pick up the one guy who rides with me to special needs group. She will be missed – she only came sporadically but I got to know her a little and really enjoyed her quirky sense of humor. She first came telling me she used to knit many, many years ago and was afraid she wouldn’t be able to remember how to do it. She brought an afghan she’s started long ago (very complicated pattern and it was HUGE!). I’m NOT a knitting teacher, but by looking over her pattern and finally grasping the ‘gist’ of it, I was able to get her back on track. (She kept losing her place in the pattern then having to rip out row after row – and these were really LONG rows!). I told her about ‘stitch counters’ (little circles of plastic that you put on your needle to mark spots in the row) – she had a ton of them in her bag, so we got started breaking her row patterns down to small groups of the same stitches. I was so proud of her (and I think she was proud of herself, too) that after that she was able to sail along knitting happily, having regained her sense of self worth as well as her sense of her ability to knit! Yes, she will be missed greatly.

I was just going through my files and realized I have a TON of great recipes for you. Hopefully I’ll be able to post more frequently just to be able to share these – some would be perfect for Easter dinner. Right now I’m not in the “Easter Dinner” mode – I’m finding every year I almost dread the cooking simply because very early that morning I will be in our church kitchen helping with the 8:45 a.m. Easter Breakfast, quickly followed by me running to the choir room to briefly practice, then go out & sing for the Easter Service, with the choir. After the church service, I’m certainly NOT thinking about what to cook that evening! Yes, I know that some grocery stores offer all-cooked dinners to pick up, not sure if I’m ready for that yet. We’ll see, as time goes on, what transpires at my house. Have YOU started planning/shopping for that yet? I’m sure it will be a small dinner here, just my family & grandson, total: 6 people, so dinner shouldn’t be that difficult. I ‘might’ ask oldest son, the chef, if he’ll prepare his super-tasty cauliflower casserole – we’ll see. Just spotted the dessert I posted above: “Watergate Salad” – might make that one for a side dessert. To quote a family statement from my past: “All things in due time.”

Have a great day – hope you’re area is starting to look more Spring-like every day!

As I’ve explained before, the assignment was to come up with book covers, using the book titles provided by the teacher. They were to be entirely cut out of construction paper and using only TWO colors, they were to “Pop”! when you looked at them. She asked for details (hard to do when cutting out construction paper, believe me! I discovered I could do so much better using embroidery scissors than the suggested Exacto knife). We have ONE more project – cut out of foam board (oh, joy…); I don’t have all the details yet but they are to create a building, their choice, BUT it has to have a Los Vegas ‘twist’ to it. Son chose a Japanese bath house but after doing some on-line searching for designs/photos, etc. of the outsides, what I THINK he means is a Japanese TEA house (am going to try to sell him on that idea, instead). The bath house is rather plain and will be difficult to VEGAS-Up, whereby the tea house might have better exterior designs to work with. We’ll see where all this goes – right?

Tonight is Knit/Crochet night with another Yarn Swap – this time I was able to take the time to dig through some of my yarn ‘stash’ and (hopefully) get rid of some of it. I don’t work with chunky yarns but somehow have several skeins (probably given to me at one time), plus several variagated yarns (those I used to use when doing the Ghana Project afghans, but haven’t used since – we’re talking 2 1/2 years). Working on the next set of baby hats; finished the delivery yesterday of the 100 hats – the volunteer who took them seemed quite surprised and kept saying: “I know they’ll LOVE them!” I’m just happy they can use something I create to bring joy to others. One of my two friends who also knits hats for my project keeps saying: “We do it because we want every baby born there to know that they are loved.”

Our weather has been AMAZING these past two days: definitely SPRING-Like! It was in the 50’s yesterday but today it got to almost 60! (AND with typical Spring winds – nearly blew me away when I came out of the grocery store! WHEW!) Reading the reports for the rest of the week are actually DISMAL, IF they come to fruition: Thursday High of 39 with chance of SNOW! UGH! (I do remember a huge snowstorm when I was young ON EASTER, so it’s still possible now – sure hope it doesn’t come true!)

Spray each sheet of foil with cooking spray.
Top each piece with equal portions of potatoes,
bacon, 1 packet onion soup powder and mix.
Add salt and pepper to taste. Add 1 tablespoon
of butter to each serving. Wrap securely.

Grill for 20 to 30 minutes.
Or you can bake it in the oven, at 350° for about
35 minutes or till done. Let stand 10 minutes
before serving. Serve in foil, topped with sour
cream if desired

(topping: 1 C. grated mozzarella cheese)
–
Preheat oven 350 degrees F.
Spray muffin tins with nonstick spray.
Line muffin tins with 12 wonton wrappers.
In small bowl, combine three cheeses; mix
together. Combine meat & sauce. Using a
small cookie scoop, add 1 scoop cheese
mixture to bottom of each wrapper; add a
small spoonful of meat/sauce. Top with
another wonton wrapper, repeat cheese/
meat scoops – you will have 2 layers in each
cup. (You can top each cup with more
mozzarella cheese if you want). Bake 15-20
minutes until bubbly & wontons are brown.
Remove from oven & let set a few minutes;
run a knife around cup & remove to serving
plate. Makes 12 cups

Now the sun is out – YAY! Any little bit of sunshine really brightens up my spirits – how ’bout you?

Gas prices are about the same as last week, they went down about 2 cents ($3.56/9). I’ve also noticed at the grocery store how some things have gone up a bit in price: milk $3.59/9 (unless, of course, you look for a lower price in the local DRUG STORE fliers!). Hamburger has gone from a large package running about $5-6 to now $7 & 8.00 (that’s the lower grade hamburger, at my local store, not a chain). Went grocery shopping today and there’s Enchiladas and Black Bean/Chicken soup on the menu soon. Like I’ve mentioned before, with the guys working and crazy hours, at that – we don’t have ‘sit down’ dinners like we used to; makes planning foods a little difficult. I try to make things that can be warmed up in individual portions. We just finished up the lasagna & chili.

Anyway, I’m going to close here for now – hope you have a GREAT day! Remember to do something for yourself every once in awhile – makes YOU feel better and also lifts your spirits!

Yep, I’m ‘back in the game’ – the ART DESIGN PROJECT game, of course! This particular project is (in my opinion) VERY touchy/difficult only in that it not only requires you cut things out of construction paper very finely BUT it requires you to think OPPOSITE of what your normal brain-thinking would be. I’ll attempt to explain: this project is supposed to be a book cover BUT it’s in REVERSE – think of an old-time film negative: that which is white is black/etc. The book covers are to be done on 6 X 6″ bristol (kind of thick cardboard) board using cut out construction paper for the designs. We are to chose 5 book titles (as given by the teacher) and come up with designs for them. On the back of the presention board they are to render a 2 X 2″ square in black & white that is the opposite of the front design (see what I mean about brain-thinking? His teacher did tell the class normal people don’t think this way, so it’s very difficult to wrap your brain around this idea – at least for ME it was!) Here is what we’ve done so far:

This is the cover, done in black & light blue, here is the back side 2 X 2″ black & white

(I had to show this in 2 photos, since this one is done) The rest have not been glued to the presentation boards yet, so I photographed them, not glued, on a white board)

The book title is: Sunset Yoga

This book title is: Greek Architecture

(it kind of looks crooked, but it’s only resting on the white board, not glued)

We still have two more designs to finish; I sketched out my ideas for the last two, but middle son has to make up his mind how he wants to do them. At the last minute he suddenly decided to change-up one of the titles (oh, great . . . sigh). We’ll see what happens. (Ah, yes – son just got home and said (about the Greek Architecture one)
“Don’t you remember? The teacher said she wants the design moved over closer to the middle of the page?” Let’s just say I wasn’t happy (to put it mildly!) His comment: “Mom, you don’t take criticism well.” YOU GOT THAT RIGHT! This is where I just back off and see how he does the rest of this, right?

Not much new around here – Knit/Movie night went very well: 11 people and a TON of food! The funny thing? Four people said they were bringing dessert, none (at the time) said exactly WHAT dessert. Come that night – we ended up with FOUR batches of CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES! How funny! Watched the movie: “Dear John”; some really liked it, I thought it was OK.

Today was ‘supposed’ to be the finish of our roofing/gutters project (we let them delay finishing due to all the snow & ice). They came out and said: “The weather is supposed to get worse today – snow & rain, so we’ll call as soon as we get clearer weather.” That’s fine – we had nothing ELSE to do, anyway! Good old Winter/Spring – ya just never know whether it’s going to be clear or snowy! I saw two robins yesterday! (for us, here in Michigan, they are a harbinger of Spring!).

(recipe: triedandtasty.com)
===========================Visited the library yesterday and checked out another five books; think that’s what I’m going to do today (plus finally make the much-awaited lasagna.) Still working on reading through the many Dee Hendersonnovels – I like her writing style: enough action/suspense to keep you wanting to read more. Also checked out two Debbie MacComber books; she writes lady-type novels AND books with knitting! (I’ve read several of them – good, kinda ‘fluffy’ stories).

It’s a rather cold/chilly/gloomy day here, temp. 33 degrees F. (perfect SNOW temperature – yippie). Today is one of those days where you just want to snuggle up under a nice, warm afghan and read a good book – or knit! Think I might just do BOTH!

Enjoy your day!

Hugs;

Pammie

ps: Sorry about the font size on some of the recipes – I try my best to make them legible, but this blog site (I’m guessing) keeps adjusting the size and I don’t know how to change it! I either get super tiny print or HUGE – there’s not nice in-between medium there!

Have you ever had that kind of day? Let me explain: last night, on the way home from evening church I got to thinking about a few errands I was going to do the NEXT day – while I was driving it struck me: “I might as well see if the grocery store is open and grab those cans of beans I need for chili.” (I should explain: earlier that day I stopped at the grocery store only to run into a power failure while I was there – customers please leave the building). We live in the area of the power outage so I knew – total time without power? 5 HOURS! Today, while attempting to help middle son with another art project I decided to see if I could find some NEWER construction paper (mine is very old – circa the 1960’s!) I needed a dark/navy blue color and mine had faded to a middle purple. Called up a local dollar store and they said they had some so I made the trip (they had a tiny pad with THREE colors: pink, yellow & light green – no help). I sat there thinking: “Do I really want to just go home and forget the navy blue OR do I want to go across the street to Meijers which ALSO has the tossed salad materials I will be needing tomorrow for the Knit/Movie night?” (insert: Might as Well) in here. They did have construction paper in two different sized pads BUT no navy blue! I bought the smaller pad anyway, since some of their colors are brighter than what I have. It seems strange, but the ‘might as well’ actually is saving me some trips; YES, I would still have needed to go, but this way tomorrow is free until around 6 p.m. when I would leave for Knit/Movie night. Right now there’s chili in the big pot and I’m using this time as a break from the art project. It’s a doozie! The teacher wants the images to be reversed – think of an old photo negative: that which is black is white, etc. Kinda blowing my mind attempting to think that way! We’re only allowed to use TWO colors (and that includes the background – not an easy assignment!).

Today was also a ‘get it done’ day – baked a loaf of banana nut bread, loaded & ran the dishwasher, did a load of laundry, worked on the art project, did the shopping, knit a baby hat – now I can relax a little with you! Finally got a call back from the hospital I deliver the baby hats to (thought it was kind of strange they didn’t answer their phone OR call me back!). Turns out the lady I used to deal with doesn’t work there anymore – got a very nice older lady who’s a volunteer – now the Volunteer Office handles my project! Made an appointment for a week from today to deliver them (friend who’s been knitting hats still has more to turn in – I’ll pick them up Sunday at church). I’m just doing the 100 hats for now, any more I’ll save for the next delivery.

How is your weather lately? Our's just keeps
thinking it's WINTER! Yesterday was in the 20's but when
I got out of church last night I nearly FROZE! The Wind
Chill was AWFUL! It was lightly snowing when I got back
home, right now it's 28.
Going to close for now (computer's reacting VERY slowly
to anything I type.
Have a GREAT DAY!
Hugs;
Pammie

Happy Saturday! This week has been a bit ‘busy’ and I didn’t even REALIZE it was already Saturday! (THAT’S how scrambled it’s been!) Last night was my special needs Gym Night – it went over well, although we only had about 15 students; my theory is: because of the goofy weather and all the cancellations we’ve had to make, they’re almost ‘gun-shy’ when it comes to coming back to the group! Wednesday we had 17 kids – that’s really LOW! Sure hope it picks up some soon, now that (hopefully) our weather will be better. HOWEVER-living in Michigan is much like the cartoon below:

Right now it’s a VERY NICE 36 degrees F.! Yesterday I was being ‘optimistic’ and wore my Fall/Spring light jacket – then went to pump gas and wished I still had the heavy winter jacket – it was very breezy and CHILLY! (gas was $3.56/9 . . . sigh). It rained overnight but NO SNOW – YAY!

Went to my first (of the season) Rummage Sale yesterday at a church. I’ve attended (and worked at) MANY rummage/garage sales in my day – this was the most dis-organized I’ve ever seen! After walking around a bit, I finally asked one of the people just WHY they had all these little areas of clothes, then dishes, toys, then more clothes, some books, more clothes, etc. instead of an area of all clothes, all books, all kitchen/dishes items, etc. She said they were trying to raise monies for their church repairs and each attending/participating family had their own ‘bucket’ in which to put their funds. Essentially: all the strange ‘groupings’ were each family’s items! I wondered why there were people (almost ‘stationed’) about every 7 feet along the tables – waaay too many people – made the buyers feel like we were under some extreme surveillance! STRANGE! As I was walking in I heard a couple going out talking about the HIGH prices there. I even attempted to suggest to one of the selling people that they just pool all their donated items, (since all the proceeds were going to the church), arrange them by category, then all monies go to the church – she kept going back to the ‘Oh, NO! EACH family has their OWN bucket!” What a weird concept! She also said this was their first rummage sale – sure hope they learn something from it! I saw very few buyers but (as said before) WAAAY TOO MANY people selling! (They were also clustered in groups – not paying any attention to their items, just chatting – not a good business procedure, I would think. Sure didn’t make me WANT to buy anything!) I ended up buying a 6 qt. crockpot (circa, I’m guessing, 1990’s) for $5.00 – had a sticker: “It WORKS!” Brought it home, all happy – went to wash it, turned it over and there appeared to be a small crack in the plastic base. Husband looked it over, sort of took it apart – lots of old grease around inside rim. I cleaned that all off – guess what! The grease is what held the base to the main part! Now that it’s clean, the base keeps falling off the main part! Oh well – it is the same size as my old crockpot AND is also one of those that the ceramic insert is removable, so I’m going to keep the ceramic insert & lid – my old crockpot is also circa 1980/1990’s – I think mine’s a bit older – it belonged to husband’s Mom. Ya win some – ya lose some, right? (Here I was, all happy that now I have TWO crockpots! sigh . . . )

Just spent a bit of time searching out clipart ‘ideas’ for middle son’s NEXT art project. Yep, it’s another DOOZIE! This one requires using ‘reverse imaging’ – sort of like an old black & white photo negative – the main image has to be REVERSED, and we can only use TWO colors for the entire work – ALSO they have to be CUT OUT OF CONSTRUCTION PAPER! (plus she said she wants DETAILED work – ugh!). They were given 8 ideas/themes and we are to chose 5 (or you can come up with 2 of your own out of the 5). Son & I haven’t had time to actually collaborate yet, so I went ‘brain-storming’ – my choice of the 5 (these are fake book titles you need to design the covers for):

“Sunset Yoga”

“Riding the Wave”

“Identify Jungle Vegetation”

“Greek Architecture”

“Light Houses of North Carolina”

Sounds like fun, right? I found some really amazing clipart at a site I’ve never seen before; gave me some really GREAT ideas to work on! (YAY!) I think the hardest will be the Greek Architecture, simply because it needs to be (in my opinion) simple/stark yet effective. Also the jungle vegetation one will require LOTS of cutting – thank heavens for my embroidery scissors with tiny tips/very sharp edges! Yes, folks, I can see us immersed in this one for hours & hours. There is still ONE MORE project after this one – it better be an easier one (although I’m guessing, it won’t be).

Glaze:
2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons milk
–
Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking
powder, cinnamon. Stir in milk and
egg until just combined. Fold in apple.
Pour oil into skillet so that it is
approximately 1 1/2 deep. Heat oil on
high. Oil is ready when a little dough thrown
in floats to top. Carefully add dough to
oil in heaping teaspoons. Cook until brown,
about 2 minutes, then flip. Cook another
1-2 minutes, until both sides are browned.
Transfer briefly to paper towels to absorb
excess oil, then transfer to cooling rack.
Make glaze by stirring milk and powdered
sugar together in a small bowl. Drizzle over
apple fritters. Wait approximately 3 minutes
for glaze to harden, then flip fritters and
drizzle glaze over the other side. Best served
warm.

Preheat oven 350 degrees.
Lightly grease a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer, beat together the sour
cream, sugar, eggs and vanilla on low speed for
a couple of minutes until well blended. Stop mixer
and then add in the flour, leavening agents and salt.
Continue to beat on low until well combined.
Fold in apples and half of nuts into batter.
Transfer the batter into the greased loaf pan*.
Sprinkle the rest of the nuts on top and then
press them lightly into the batter. Bake for about
60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the
center comes out clean. Cool in the loaf pan for
about 20-30 minutes and then transfer to a wire
rack to cool completely.

*So it doesn’t get too dark, I suggest using a light
colored loaf pan.

For the praline sauce:

In a small sauce pan, place the butter and brown
sugar. Using medium heat, bring to a boil. Lower
heat and simmer lightly for about one minute,
stirring constantly until the sauce thickens. Remove
from heat and drizzle over bread. Cool completely.

(recipe: Facebook)
—————————————————–

Light & Delicious Spaghetti Squash

2 T. olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 large tomato
4 C. fresh baby spinach2 C. spaghetti squash (see below)
2 dashes salt & pepper
–
To cook spaghetti squash: make several holes
in squash using a fork then place in microwave
10-12 minutes (about 4-5 minutes per lb). Allow
to cool several minutes. Remove from microwave
cut open lengthwise. Using a fork, scrape out
contents (it will be stringy) into a bowl; set aside.
In large skillet, heat oil over medium heat; add
garlic & cook until just turning brown. Add tomato,
sprinkle with a little salt. Top with spinach leaves &
cover; cook 2 minutes. Spinach will cook & reduce
down. Uncover; break up spinach with a wooden
spoon; it will start to clump together once cooked.
Add spaghetti squash a little at a time & stir in. Sprinkle
with salt & pepper. Serves 1-2

Not a lot to write about – been working on helping middle son with the LAST Art Design project – (I think!). This one is all about Logos – companies use them as ‘instant identification’ for their customers and products. What sounds like an easy assignment can prove to be VERY difficult when it comes to coming up with logo designs for such companies as (a) a ceiling fan company in the tropics (b) a coffee company that is now going to be selling both hot AND cold coffee (c) a sports company that is expanding to cover almost every known sport and (the last and most difficult) (d) MAKE UP your OWN company and then design logos for it! I’d say, of all the companies listed above, the two most difficult were the fan company and the sports company. The teacher did NOT want the students to include any lettering in the design, just a picture/image – not as easy as it sounds. She even told them to ‘think out of the box – the more random, the better” – that’s what happened with the sports company (as you will see when I show you the final photos). In this project, I attempted to stay as much OUT of it as I could, but then it hit the wall, so to speak. It’s very difficult to come up with ideas (SO glad I don’t work for an advertising firm!).

Been cooking a bit lately – Chicken Parmesan, Beef roast with potatoes & carrots; have all the fixin’s for lasagna, but today I just don’t feel quite ‘right’ – ever have one of those days? It was ‘supposed’ to be: get up and go grocery shopping AFTER husband took my car into dealership for a routine check up; no boys home (at work). What actually happened? Got up, husband stayed home not feeling well (headache) – BOTH boys home – surprise! I didn’t feel well, either – achy, out of sorts, yucky (not flu, just not quite ‘right’). Got some laundry done, went through the cupboards & fridge to see what was needed grocery-wise (I knew we were getting pretty empty in the larder, so to speak). Made up the lists for where to go/what to buy but just couldn’t seem to muster enough energy to accomplish it – not ANY of it! Middle son got up and said: “Today’s the day to finish the project!” (me thinking: Oh, great – I didn’t even THINK about that one!). After a brief conference about the last two logo ideas, we settled on them and got to work and I’m happy with what we produced. I’m a perfectionist – it REALLY bothers me if things I make/work on, etc. don’t come out (in my mind’s eye) PERFECT! I have to remember that THIS project is supposed to be my SON’S work, hence I have to do things a bit differently that I would if it were solely mine – what does that mean, exactly? My son is a GUY – they don’t color ‘inside the lines’ exactly – half of this project required using colored pencils in very small spaces, or black ink pen in a 2″ X 2″ space – you tend to get some ‘spill-over’, if you understand what I’m saying. Right now all of the (4) 8 X 8″ squares are painted (2 painted/2 using construction paper-cut out), (4) 2″ X 2″ black pen renderings (12) 3 X 3″ squares colored with colored pencils. What’s left: gluing all of them on four large foam boards plus the headings AND writing a small paper on WHY you chose each of the ideas for each of the four companies. I’M DONE! My part in this is finished – son still has to do the write-ups and the gluing – all before 9 a.m. tomorrow morning BUT I’M NOT GOING TO STRESS OVER IT! That’s hard for me, as I want to see the completed project. I love my family but I live with a house full of procrastinators! Oh well – such is life, eh?

Today is St. Patrick’s Day – a day, for me, just like every other day. I’m not one to celebrate this day BUT I WILL post some recipes for you, for this day.

Frosting:In a small bowl, beat confect. sugar, milk,
vanilla & salt until smooth. Frost the top &
sides of frozen cake squares then roll in
peanuts. Place on wire racks to set.
Makes 2 dozen

(recipe: Ronda-justapinch.com)
=========================

Weather-wise it’s been kind of crazy – when it LOOKS like it’s going to be a rather warm day (in the 40’s, here, would be warm) – it turns into a 9 degree day (like Saturday!) Yesterday was OK but towards evening the wind was really chilly and the temps driving home from church at around 7:45 sat at 14 degrees F. Crazy stuff.

How are YOUR gas prices? Ours have JUMPED – they are now sitting at $3.69/9 – that’s outrageous, in my opinion! (What happened to $3.39/9? I was sort of happy with that, of course LOWER would be good, too!).

Well, the grocery shopping has now been moved to tomorrow AFTER I get done at the dentist’s (quick trip there to pick up a teeth-whitening kit). This is one of two weeks of pretty full days. The good thing? There are TWO church rummage sales coming up this week, on two different days! YAY! You KNOW it’s coming on Spring when we finally get garage/rummage sales! (Mind you – I don’t REALLY NEED anything, I just love the excitement of the search!).

My friend who knit the extra baby hats for me has now given me another bag with 17 MORE hats – and I haven’t delivered the last ones yet! I thought I knit fast – she’s WAAAY past me! Tomorrow is Knit/Crochet night with the added fun of the Yarn/Accessories Swap thrown in. We’ll see how that goes – the ladies seem quite interested (me, not so much: I really don’t have anything to swap AND I already have Way TOO much yarn & accessories!). I started another baby blanket (think I mentioned that last post): this one is a pattern I’ve done last year, also for the Detroit Veteran’s Hospital baby shower (did 2 last year in this pattern). This time I bought a MUCH brighter yarn for the contrast to the main white color; not exactly sure I like the brightness, but I’m sure the knit group ladies will convince me it’s really “colorful” and babies would love it. We’ll see . . .

Gonna close here for now; hope you have a GREAT day – enjoy and don’t imbibe too much of the Irish Stout!

Amazing – we’ve had several WARM days together! (well – I suppose I should clarify that: FRIDAY was an AMAZING warm day – it actually got up to 50 DEGREES! Today it’s sunny and 25 degrees.) I was SO happy to see WARM sunshine – it was melting the multitudes of snow/ice masses! All the snow is off of our roof, off the driveway, sidewalk, etc – you can drive and not worry about sliding – very little ice on the roads – YAY! Oh, on another ‘car’ related subject: how are your gas prices? Friday was ‘go get grandson’ day and I decided I would stop at a Meijer gas station close to his bus stop: the price was great: $3.52/9 BUT they were lined up 3 deep at each pump and I only had about 10 extra minutes before the bus was due. Across the street at Speedway was the same thing/same price – sigh . . . passed them both by. Yesterday I went on line to see who had the best prices and (yesterday) Meijer here (3 minutes from my house) they were $3.59/9; I couldn’t go at the time but thought I’d get it on the way home from church today. After church we drove by, only to discover they were sitting at (what seems like) the ‘standard’ price for my area: $3.62/9; ended up passing that up and going to Clark – same price -sigh. Sometimes ya just can’t win.

Friday/Grandson went well; I had purchased a nifty $1.00 ‘craft’ for him to do (a plastic mug with an insert; the insert is an all-black scratch paper – you scratch off the design you want and underneath the black is multi-colored rainbow effect so that your ‘design’ is in color on an all black background.) He ended up deciding to do that one some other time; he just wanted to draw and color! He ‘created’ and I worked on thinking up new Logo designs for middle son’s LAST Art Design project; came up with a couple he might use.

NOTE: Run knife around edges of muffin cups
to make it easier to remove the baked cups
from pan.
Can be made ahead of time. Prepare recipe
as directed; cool completely. Refrigerate
until ready to serve. To reheat: wrap 2 muffins
in waxed paper; microwave on High 15 seconds
or just until warmed. Repeat with rest of muffins
as needed.

Preheat oven 375 degrees.
Grease a 9 inch square pan and set aside. In a medium bowl,
combine the first 6 ingredients, mixing together with a
fork until crumbly; set aside. In another medium bowl,
stir together the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.
In a large bowl, cream together the remaining butter and
sugar. Blend in the egg and vanilla until smooth. Blend in
the flour mixture and cream alternately, beginning and
ending with the flour (flour, milk, flour, milk, flour). Fold in
the blueberries. (The dough is quite stiff, so be patient as
you’re folding in the berries! Don’t mush them up!)
Spread the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle
with the crumble topping. Bake for 50-60 minutes,
until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes
out clean. Cool, and cut into 9 large squares.

*baking sheet is used to catch an sauce that might
bubble over sides of dish as the dessert bakes

(recipe: Kraft foods)
==========================

That’s the news from around here; finished the crocheted Diagonal Box afghan (still trying to decide if I want to crochet a white border around it, or not). One of my friends in Sunday School asked a few weeks ago if I was still knitting baby hats – she wanted to participate. Today she gave me a bag of 26 hats! (She didn’t know this was not a ‘knit group’ project, just me doing it – she wants to continue . . . I’m ALL for it! Will call the hospital tomorrow and set up a delivery date; by my ‘estimate’ that will be around 70+ hats this time! (about 10 of those were knit byanother friend of mine in the knit group – I’ve got great friends who love doing charity work . . me, too).

Enjoy your day – since it’s officially “SPRING FORWARD” Time Change day – take an extra nap if you need it! (Our Sunday School teacher mentioned that our class was unusually QUIET today – someone in the back commented: “It’s because we’re all still asleep!”

This one was, by far, the most challenging/difficult/ down-right pain in the neck of the one’s he’s been assigned thus far. The assignment was to pretend you were a design company who was asked to create two designs for the surf & waveboard company: “Slickers”. You were to come up with two designs of your choosing then make 5 ‘example’ boards, using five out of eight color combinations – one of the example boards was also to be made into a surf/waveboard showing off your design. Son chose the designs and most of the colors; one of the stipulations was that one was to be done in ‘cool’ colors and the other in ‘warm’ colors. That might sound REALLY easy, at first . . . but when you begin to use the mandatory ‘color combinations’ you come up with some pretty UGLY colors! (in my humble opinion, that is . . .). I painted the (really ugly) yellow-orange/blue-violet wings pattern and, YES – you can say it: “IT’S UGLY!’ You would have been laughing if you heard me (as my husband calls it) ‘quacking’ (complaining) the entire time I did it – there’s no way around it – it’s just plain UGLY! The color choices DO NOT go together, no matter HOW you try: yellow-orange and blue-violet are just NOT colors I would MIX – anywhere! (much less – be colors that are ‘cool’ looking!) Yes, I DID say I wouldn’t PAINT, but as my son said: “Mom, I just have to face it: I’m NOT FAST when it comes to painting!” (I really felt bad for him; what would take me about 25 minutes to paint took him 1 1/2 – 2 HOURS! And even then, he was really struggling! Since it HAD to be done by tomorrow 9 a.m.,I did help, a little (most the behinds the scenes thing like gluing and typing the various labels). Here are the finished project boards:

Another project done- son told me: “I’ll be glad if I just get a C on this one” – I agree; we did it but it sure wasn’t easy!